Russian banks need at least 40 billion rubles. for import substitution of POS-terminals for accepting cards after leaving the country of the French manufacturer Ingenico. Such an assessment is given in a letter from the Association of Banks of Russia (ADB) to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vedomosti writes with reference to the document.
Ingenico completely sold its business and left Russia in mid-2022, and since March of this year it has ceased to provide technical support for existing devices.. The share of Ingenico terminals accounts for about 50% of all operating devices in Russia, or about 2 million units, follows from ADB data.
In this regard, banks propose the government to provide subsidies to representatives of the payment industry for the replacement of foreign terminals.. Subsidies for the replacement of such a number of terminals are necessary for both banks and equipment manufacturers.
As expected, this request was not well received..
The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, commenting on the letter, said that manufacturers of payment terminals can take advantage of existing measures to support the production of electronic products.
The Russian Central Bank also notes that Russia has its own software development and operating systems, but there are not always alternatives in terms of equipment and infrastructure..
However, apparently banks are also aware of the possibilities of " And something obviously does not suit them.
A few months before Ingenico said goodbye to the Russian market for good, experts had already discussed all possible future problems.
Among them, there were also optimists who argued that banks would easily find a replacement, and citizens have long had alternatives to pay at retail outlets, for example, using QR codes, so no one will notice anything.
Others warned that if such a major player leaves the payment market, there will be consequences.. For Russians, this is at least an increase in the cost of transaction services.
Russia will need to replace about 2 million. devices.
Questions also arise in connection with the creation and maintenance of software for terminals. In this case, the total cost of replacing devices alone could be approximately $400 million.. (25-30 billion rubles). This is quite a lot, especially if you have to do such steps in a time-compressed format.. Therefore, after the exit of Ingenico from Russia, most of this amount of expenses will naturally be shifted to end users, and the cost of transactions may become more expensive..